Car seats and a pushchair

[caliash]

Hi all,

New to this site and the vw california in general. We're looking at getting a california but have what could be a make or break question.

We have two children (6 months and nearly 3) who are both in car seats and wouldn't really think about going anywhere without a pushchair for the youngest. I'm assuming the 2 car seats won't be an issue and an assuming that the boot/rear space will take a pushchair no problems. However, what about at night when the need/seats are down? Was thinking we could put the car seats on the front seats whilst the little ones sleep but doesn't really give us anywhere to sit (plan would be for the children to sleep "down stairs").

Anyone got any similar experience of staying in a camper van with two really quite young children?

Thanks in advance, seems like a great community here of like minded people.

Ash

 

[holliers]

Hi Ash,

We have two kids, one of whom is 2 yrs and in a car seat, so whilst not exactly your situation, we do have one seat and a child that needs to be accommodated.

When parked up, the car seat goes on one of the front seats, the Isofix base in the footwell. We then have three seats for us and my elder daughter, and the youngster sits on a lap somewhere.

Bedtime, I sleep upstairs with the elder daughter and the 2 yr old sleeps downstairs with my wife. We try to keep the kids up as late as possible, then sit outside once they have gone to bed. If it's too cold or raining, we all go to bed at the same time.

I guess one alternative to the storage issue and what to do after kids bedtime is an tent-awning, but I went for the van because I didn't want to put up a tent.

Also, we find the boot can be easily consumed by a pushchair (we have a smallish pushchair), especially when you start filling with other camping stuff. At 2, we're electing to leave our pushchair at home, but if my daughter was any younger I think we would have bought a smaller McClaren fold down chair to save space.

For us, we knew the first few years with a youngster would be a different experience to when the kids are 5+, but we bought ours for the longterm. If we don't use it as much in the first few years, we'll catch up in the later years.

What about hiring one for a weekend to see how you get on?

Mark

 

[caliash]

Mark,

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. Yes, we're definitely in agreement on the tent thing as don't want the added hassle of that. As you said, I think the next step is a weekend/week hire to see how we get on.

Thanks again,

Ash

 

[Stu]

We use a small pop up tent for ease if we need to put stuff outside the van.

We used to have a Khyam tent but didn't use it so much as it was bulky however we have recently bought one of the Vango airbeam driveaway tents and after the first use a few weeks ago can see how it is so useful if you have little ones.

There is a separate compartment that makes a perfect toilet tent!!

 

[nova30]

We have a 10 month old and a 3 year old and hired a Cali for a week in July. It was hugely enjoyable, but with such young children not without its challenges. As others have already said, I would definitely recommend a pop up tent. We used it a huge amount and stored both car seats and loads of other stuff in there overnight. Without the tent or somewhere else external for two seats (and all the other paraphernalia that comes with young kids) I think it would very cramped. The advantage of a popup tent is that it can be put up and down extremely easily and it doesn’t take up any space. For us it wasn’t a big overhead at all. We got very cheap one (£20) just for the trip and it was fine. We only had the van for a week, but for us it was very much one to bed, all to bed and one up, all up. I suspect that over time and as the kids get used to the experience (and get older) that changes.

Hiring the Cali was very much a try before you buy exercise for us. From our experience we decided that the youngest is probably a little too young right now and that we will wait until another couple of years making a purchase. What did it for us was the rainy days and all the little one wanted to do was try and walk and explore. The Cali is fantastic at many things, but the one thing it isn’t is providing a world for a 10 month old to explore ( I guess had we had an awning then the experience would be different). I don’t want to put you off at all, as we had a fantastic time. Our 3 year really enjoyed herself and is constantly talking about ‘Daisy’ (name the van got given) and wants to go exploring “again, and again and again”.

A good tip that we got from the forum is to use the rear parcel shelve as cot/day bed. With the rear blinds down it makes a great dark, safe place for naps etc.

I would recommend hiring.

 

[Stu]

A good tip that we got from the forum is to use the rear parcel shelve as cot/day bed. With the rear blinds down it makes a great dark, safe place for naps etc.

That's what we do but I'm not sure it would be viable with 2 kids.

 

[NZCol]

We only have one 18month old. Things we have worked out
We bought a mother are buggy that fits in the gap beside the foldout table in the boot so takes up v little room.
Our one sleeps upstairs in a travel cot setup, we dump spare bags behind it, pop her in and shut the hatch. She has a LED nightlight now which helps.
We bought a foldable booster seat restraint thing from mother are which is brilliant, we can put it on the back bench seat for feeding etc works really well. We also use a laptop stand from ikea as a feeding table with two bungees to hold it to the seat.
We bought a 2 part car seat with a isofix base that we actually use with the belt as the isofix is a pain to use. We slide the base under the van and post the seat in the footwell of the drivers side , we leave that seat the right way round mostly.

 

[McMeefia]

We have had the Cali for nearly 3 years and our kids are now 4 and 7 and when we first started we had the Labrador with us as well.
One of the toughest things is getting the Isofix attachments to fit the bench seats, we just about have the knack of it now!
We have a pop up tent for the car seats which is really handy for chucking everything into and giving you the space in the van on a campsite. The other thing that we have is a collapsible roof box / bag designed to sit on the bike carrier, made by Thule, and this can easily accommodate two car seats.
There are loads of ways of doing it. The most difficult situation is overnighting in a French aire when fully loaded with bikes on the back, the tent in the van (because you can't use the tent in an aire) and then we do the same with one seat in the footwell and the other on the seat. Bit of a squeeze but very do-able.
This summer is the first year that we can go without the buggy, our MacLaren fitted under the rear shelf really easily.
Again, we used to split the kids when they were younger.

 

[caliash]

Hi all,

Thanks for all of your replies with your past experiences, really appreciated. Great to hear from those who have been there and done it.

Thanks,

Ash

 

[cleve]

This post I put on the forum earlier might be useful for you

http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7890&p=69386#p69378